… with comments

Breaking Into the Real World

This was an email I just sent to a friend; I decided to share it with you after the fact:

I hope I can get into a philosophy program Harry. I can just see it now. An old professor is going to do a google on me when my application comes to the center of his desk and he is going to read,

“Michael, I felt compelled to drop you this line after I read Princess Sushitushi’s interpretation of COTK’s declaration of withdrawal from the CREC…..”

Once he realizes that I’m not speaking about foreign political affairs involving third world countries or the next release of Star Wars, his pipe will fall out of his mouth, he’ll offer an odd chuckle, and carefully scoot my application to the rejection pile : -) Ah, yes, Princess Sushitushi and the COTK declaration, just heard about that on CNN last night. Wilson’s World has probably ruined me for life.. . . . .

michael

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If you are honestly worried about this, quit and take down your website. Sure, it will be there forever, but at least you could tell any application committee that you have moved on from this pettiness. Do you honestly think that Wilson cares enough to keep talking about you after you take your website down? Of course not.

Basically what I’m saying is that it’s easy for you to end this. It’s your choice.

Michael, why do you think people never bring things like you went through to light?

1. Unless you have influence it never works.
2. Unless you can get someone of influence to back you it never works
3. People of influence got there by worshipping their mentors who helped them become influential.
4. Once you have influence, you do not dare do things to ruin it like siding with a nobody against another influential person

And this is why people like Piper will continue to have a relationship with the Sprouls of the world.

Actually, not true. In fact I was in shut down mode when he tried to convince everyone that I was a liar–naming me explicitly in his primary post. I was really disappointed about this, since I was hoping to switch to the next phase of going on with life in the Wood. Further, it just isn’t as simple as you make it: I certainly would not pull my site, since there is so much valuable information there and work done by people other than me. Second, Wilson is a very patient person, and I can assure you he would find ways of attacking many months if not years from now when the chance arose. I’m not really concerned about this latter point given how unpopular Wilson will continue to become; but it illustrates the complexity of the situation. By keeping a good readership, I weild a small club that can keep Wilson back a bit from the other people and has and perhaps will hurt.

“I disagree that you were in “shut down mode.” I’ve never seen your post frequency slacken, other than your brief Florida visit. You’ve posted regularly on Wilson, even in that period.”

Well, you are simply wrong. I even explicitly stated how I was going on at two different times and the nature and volume of posting mirrored these statemens. this is also fully consistent with private conversations I had at the time. I was simply peved that Wilson would do something that would require further time from me to defend myself. But since you don’t seem to want to critize the work we do in the Wood in any helpful fashion, or evidence that you do carefully read my web site, I’m not going to take the time to point this out.

As for readership that is sympathetic, that is pretty simple; it is not an precise science, but: most, perhaps almost all, the people I communicate with who read my blog who are not tied to Wilson’s personality or ministries compliment the work here–some actually praise it and express great appreciation; some have found it very valueable for their own situations. Almost all the criticism I get comes from Wilson defenders. There were two diffeent fellows who maintain that they have been highly neutral while constantly criticizing my work (and this bothered me and made me think twice on some things), but both of them showed themselves in the end to be highly commmitted emotionally to seeing Wilson vindicated, and fairly irrational. Even Kirkers who are not committed to defend Wilson are apt to just remain neutral at this point. Further, from what I can tell, there is generally a very sharp difference between the kinds of folks who like the Wood and those who despise it. I find most the folks complimentary to be generally well educated, intelligent, and non-fundamentalist in nature, whereas those who don’t like the Wood are typically incapable of following one of our arguments. Some are just off the evaluation charts, such as my TR BBWarfield friend in CA who censured my blog simply because I deny the Cov. of Works — and he doesn’t like Wilson at all.

I am not bragging here but sincerely trying to answer your question as to why I claim that it is clear the Wood is generally appreicated by those not interested in taking me down in order to preserve their own religious leader or social identity. This is all rough stuff, but the pattern has been overwhelming and a HUGE encouragement to me. Without this, I suspect getting the bullets in the back as I left the Kirk would have been far more psychologically damaging.

About Pooh’s Think With Comments

UPDATE (9/07): Mr. Metzler has again claimed that he supports open dialogue, and again he refusesto open his site to comments. I challenge him to do so.

Michael Metzler is the author of Pooh’s Think. He claims that he promotes open dialogue, but he blocks all comments on his blog. This blog was not for the webmaster to comment on Mr. Metzler’s behavior, but rather to allow anyone to comment.

This page consisted totally of Mr. Metzler’s own blog posts, republished here so that discussion can take place. Nothing was added or deleted. Comments are totally unmoderated and will stay that way. Pages will no longer be updated on a regular basis.